Eagles ride big seventh to 5-2 softball victory

Franklin County Technical School scored three times in the seventh inning to snap a 2-2 tie and the Eagles opened up the 2013 softball season with a 5-2 victory over Renaissance School Tuesday afternoon in Springfield.

The win came in support of Franklin Tech pitcher Julia Carey, who gave up two unearned runs in a solid start. Carey finished with eight strikeouts and four walks in seven innings, surrendering four hits against.

The game remained tied until the top of the seventh inning when Mackenzie Coburn worked a leadoff walk and advanced to third on a passed ball and a sacrifice bunt by Sam Scopa. After Haley Keene walked, Alyssa Andrews singled to plate the go-ahead run. Katie Newell then followed with an RBI single of her own for the fourth Eagle run of the day, and Andrews later scored the final run on a passed ball.

Coburn finished with a triple, while Ellie Diemand added an RBI.

“I thought Julia threw the ball great today,” Tech coach Michael Blanchard said. “We didn’t play very good defensively behind her, but she was the star of the game. And she’s coming off a lot of back issues, but I asked her how it felt after the game and she said it felt great. She just wants to keep throwing.”

Stephanie Godding struck out eight for Renaissance, allowing four hits and eight walks. Godding led the team offensively with two hits.

The Eagles plated five runs in the first two innings of their season opener, including two on a single by Cody Booska. That lead quickly evaporated, as Sabis plated seven runs in innings two through four to take the lead for good. Matt Cieboter hit a two-run single off Franklin Tech starter Booska in the bottom of the second, and Leonard Dennette hit an RBI single as part of a two-run third. Of the four runs scored off Booska, just one was earned.

Ethan Wickline came on in the fourth inning and faced the same struggles from the defense behind him as a Marcus Hernandez fly ball to center field was dropped, allowing two runs to score. The Bulldogs wound up scoring one more run in the fourth to take a 7-5 lead, then plated four times in the seventh to finish the scoring.

“Our defense was not great today,” first-year coach Brian Winslow said. “But the kids battled hard and played hard. The field conditions were not great but we were not making the plays that we need to make, the ones we’ve been working hard to make sure we make.”

Jake Earl doubled and stole a base for the Eagles, while Wickline added a triple and a stolen base. Booska finished with three strikeouts and three walks in three innings, while Wickline was tagged for the loss, striking out one and walking one in three-plus innings.

Girls’ track

Frontier 134, Catholic 10 — Frontier Regional School barely broke a sweat as it cruised to its 106th consecutive dual-meet victory with a 134-10 skunking of Holyoke Catholic High School on Thursday.

Mairead Ferry led the Red Hawks in their opening-meet win as she captured three events. She topped all comers in the triple jump (30 feet, 7.75 inches) and pole vault (7-6), while cruising to victory in the 400-meter low hurdles (79.7).

Kat Miner added a pair of wins in the 200 meters (27.9) and high jump (5-0), as well as running a leg on the winning 4x100 relay team, Amanda Mozea earned blue ribbons in the discus (76-9) and shot put (31-2.25), and Kin Wildman-Hanson won the long jump (14-9) and also ran a leg of the 4x100.

Frontier continues its busy early season schedule Thursday when it hosts Palmer High School at 4.

Ultimate

Four Rivers 13, Northampton 4 — Turnover did nothing to slow down the Four Rivers Charter School girls’ ultimate team in the season opener as it cruised to a 13-4 victory over Northampton High School Tuesday in Greenfield.

Four Rivers lost a number of players from the 20-player roster a year ago, and roughly one-third of the team this year is eighth-graders. The youth proved they were ready to step up to varsity and, combined with some talented holdovers, easily knocked off the Blue Devils.

Lea Sweeney was credited with phenomenal defensive layouts and great handling in the win, while eighth-grader Sophie Garbus was credited with smart team play at both ends of the field. Annaleah Ramseyer and Lucia Mason each added strong defensive play to hold Northampton to just four points.

Four Rivers travels to Longmeadow High School Thursday afternoon before hosting St. Johnsbury Academy Friday afternoon.